Heavy arrow and speed did not hurt either. Really nice buck! Congrats

 

Nice Max!!!!! congrats !

 

Nice Buck The Spitfire Maxx will put a hurtin on them.

 

Very nice buck!!! Nice Job!!!:thumbs_up

But,,,,,,,, I think I would reweigh them arrows or try another chronograph??? Those figures are quite high! I had the VPA 100grain terminators shoot clear thru a huge doe at 64 yards like hot butter, 457 grain at 335 fps. she did a half circle dropping 30 yards from where I stuck her. Then one week later took a 237 pound field dressed, 10 pointer head on breast shot at 35 yards exit out the off side mid way after spliting the breast bone and taking the #2,3,&4, ribs out length wise and hit the paddle bone then penetrated the heavy piece of meat lengthwise behind the leg , about 8", went less than 70 yards and a bloody mess all the way, these were the 2nd and 3rd deer taken with the same blade,,,,nothing to change, the 4th deer of the year fell a week later to the same broadhead. I can assure if your figures are right, at 100 yards that VPA will exit on an end to end shot, your talk'n 161 ft ke with your setup mine is only 114 ft ke ??????? I would definitely recheck those figures.

 

Vpa's aren't 2 inches wide either! The original stryker was a 405fps bow I believe with a 400 grain arrow? So 454 grain I assume he's not that far off but maybe a bit high on fps but should be mid 380's id think. End to end penetration with a 1.75 cut takes some oomph! Nice buck!

 

pretty buck Stryker:thumbs_up

 

Nice buck congrats!

 

nice buck fro sure congrats.

 

Over 161 lbs. of KE sure worked on him !!

 

Awesome kill and great heads too

 

Congratulations ... one thing, on super hard quartering away shots, an inch in the wrong direction can make a huge difference in penetration & lethality. My observation is that Spitfires, while a great flier & deer killer; are not the best penetrating head around to begin with.

 

Awesome job getting your beautiful buck.

I think spitfires are great heads but I've experienced penetration issues when the head hits solid bone.
I don't know exactly why but spitfires won't give when hitting something solid. They won't flex or slide around bone.

 

nice.....congrats

 

one thing i am not real sure about with epandables is that they seem to deflect off bone etc while passing thru the deer.

My hunting partner shot a nice buck 2 days ago and made an easy 28 yrd broadside shot. The arrow went in and came out low and thru part of the guts...really obvious it re routed as it went thru. This has happend another time too. He is using a 2009 Parker Tornado shooting 328 f.p.s.
I have never had this happen .....? The arrow just comes out the other side blade less.

Lite arrows of slower bows..........for get about it.

 

last year my SPITFIRE EDGE BROADHEADS , with the chisel tip, crushed this shoulder bone on this doe last January
i think the broadhead tip , angle of the shot and power, make the difference on weather the broadhead goes thru or around bones

 

I'm thinking the farther back the cutting surface is from the head tip is why there is a performance difference in mechanical and fixed especially heads like the VPA.

 

Not sure about that Scotty. I think the difference is in the size of the cut. 1.5 inches on my regular Spitfires sure touches a bigger area than the 1.0 inches on my Slick Tricks. More area to cut means more resistance as the arrow travels on its way through the target (but also more sliced area to ensure a quick end for the animal I hunt, obviously).

Try what I did. Get a First Grader's compass. Draw a circle 1-inch in diameter. Then, using the same center point, draw another (concentric) circle 1.5-inches in diameter. THAT is a HUGE difference in cut and area contacted (more resistance is encountered making the larger cut, especially when hitting heavy bone). I drew those circles just to visualize the difference in cut ... and I was impressed by the difference.

That big cut is why I shot Spitfires -- until this year when I didn't get a pass-through on a mildly quartering hit. It hit bone on the far front shoulder and that stopped the broadhead between the bone and the hide on that side. As of now I have put Slick Tricks on my arrows for next year. But I sure hate to give up that big cut. I'm waffling.

 

i think one blade could open as it hits bone and then steer the arrow.

 

You got that right no1!
Like from a direct broadside lung hit smack into the hip on the opposite side (happened twice to me). I admit though, those hip bones looked like I had hit them with my 30-06. And both times the arrow had passed through, if you want to call it that. On almost every hit I made with the Spitfires the arrow would be close by and off to one side like I had thrown it there.

 

Tom
You could be right. I don't know for sure.

But I'm shooting the same size broadhead as the spitfire. If the regular spitfire is 1 1/2 inch cut that's what my ramcat is.
The difference in consistent penetration is noticeable between the two and I'm shooting into the shoulders hard.
I've noticed the ramcat will find its way through but the spitfire has a tendancy to stop to often for me.

 

Interesting ... even with your 400 fps RDT bows as listed on your posts the Spitfire "has a tendency to stop too often" but the RamCats don't.

 

Congrats on your buck and a great recovery, those pics are pretty nasty I guess that doe didn't make it very far.

 

this doe went 20 yards downhill, she could not run with no legs
this same arrow was also used on all 3 crossbow deer this year ( 1 doe, and 2 8pt Bucks) and is still usable agian
once with my Tenpoint Crossbow i got my 1st 8 deer with the same 2219 Tenpoint arrow
i think thats amazing

 

Dang max, looks like you threw an axe threw her !! ... uh oh , I think someone else already coined that phrase...lol

And I do agree, it's how the shot placement presents the broad head as to where it can go, I shot a buck angled way away , went in the next to last rib, ricocheted out of the neck way up..??? they do funny things with all the physics involved

 

My main reason for leaving Spitfires was the fact they perform so different from one kill to the next. I don't care if I ran them 235 fps. 20 years ago, or 340fps a couple years ago, since they came out, it was all I used, to take well over 100 deer in those years and only had two that I couldn't recover. But a few that required several hours tracking to recover. Plus they are mechanical,,,,require a 6 dollar set of replacement blades and "RETAINERS" to reuse If you want them as sharp as before, and they also need attention paid to the retainers!! I believe the retainers are part of the reason they are so unpredictable, sometimes they work like no other, and the next time they they seem to display poor penetration, that could possibly be caused by one or two blades taking more energy to open and thus causing a kick, allowing the arrow to take another course than it entered on???? Any angleing shot also assures you that the blades are not capable of opening at the same time???? there mechanical and when one blade enters before the other it has to open first!! I am not saying they don't work, but after 20 years thinking fixed blades can't be as accurate, I proven, I didn't know what I thought I did,,,,but that is something we all find, if we pay attention to all the aspects of hunting!!

At the very least,,,,every time you shoot one it changes, the retainers get weaker and less reliable with every shot, if you replace them every shot they are still different than the time before. If you want the sharpest possible blades, you have to buy replacements, they are a pain to sharpen and never know if they have a slight bend or not. The style I chose when I decided to switch, has none of those problems, I practice with exactly what is going to kill my next deer,,,,so far I could not have made a better choice, only time will tell if it stays that way. But with every kill I gain more confidence. I have fewer and fewer opportunities the older I get. I know this year the 35 yard straight on shot with 1/3rd of the deer behind a tree, and on alert, could not have had a better outcome, and never better terminal performance, and in two minuets it was ready for #4, free of more cost!!

One thing I do know, is if I ever shoot a mechanical again, it would most likely be a spitfire, but I don't see that happening.

 

STRYKER

Here's a pic of the ramcat after hitting a big solid rock. Not intentionally lol

I don't think the ramcat is hollow.

 

Wow that's exactly what my RAMCAT broadhead did on hard impact
its has to be hollow to collapse like that
they make a good designed head, but they need a solid ferrule
every broadhead has its flaws, and these hollow aluminium ferrules are the biggest flaw of the RAMACT broadheads
penetration on soft tissue is its biggest attraction, as they show at trade show demos on ballistic jell

 

As of now I believe the ramcat is a good head for getting pass throughs with bad hits because it has the knack for getting around bone which also makes me believe it would be great for lower speed/ke setups. The size is great in the fixed head category for shots to far back.

 

Nice buck congrats! :thumbs_up